Date of Conviction: 23/08/1820

Age at Conviction: 22

Crime Convicted of: Highway Robbery

Court Convicted at: Lancaster Assizes (held at Lancaster Castle)

Sentence Length: Life

Ship Transported on: Providence (1)

Where Arrived: Hobart, Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania)

Departure Date: 06/06/1821

Arrival Date: 18/12/1821

Biography: Along with Mary Crawley and Martha Pennington and three other young men, Mary, who had been born in Hull, assaulted and robbed Patrick Griffiths of his pocket watch on the highway at Liverpool. Her death sentence was reprieved whilst her two female accomplices were sent to Millbank and were pardoned after four years.

Mary arrived with the report from Lancaster stating she had been ‘very bad’ in jail. She married convict Richard Penrhyn (ship- Maria) in the colony In October 1824 at Hobart who was the husband of fellow Lancastrian Margaret Penrhyn who was pardoned and never got to rejoin her husband. The relationship between Mary and Richard however was an unhappy and violent one. In 1826 she was described as repeatedly absent by her husband and reported to the police but the same year he was convicted of assaulting her. In 1828, whilst drunk he threatened to kill her with a knife.